A bull moose standing on the fall tundra in Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Vegetation includes Dwarf Birch and Alaska Willow. Please click on the image to view a larger version of the photo.

Hey Folks

Recently I saw a tweet the other day from photographer Richard Bernabe: “Just had a photo editor demand raw files to process as they see fit. I turned the deal down.”

I saw and enjoyed at least some of the following conversation. We discussed the merit of sending out a RAW file to a photo editor instead of some other file format, such as a tiff or a jpeg.

For myself, I can’t see any reason to not send a RAW file if an editor or graphic artist requests it, unless there was some very highly unusual and extenuating circumstance; the only one that springs to mind is if the final image was a manual blend of multiple exposures, and/or a panoramic stitch that I’d put together. Even in those circumstances, I suspect I’d most likely explain to the person I was dealing with about the amount of time involved in finishing the product from camera to computer screen, and suggest they simply use the finished 8-bit tif or jpeg file, but if they felt they really wanted the RAW files, I can’t see why not; it’d mean they have to do (in some cases) a whole lot of work I’d already done, but if that’s what they wanted, I can’t see a good reason to refuse.

If someone paid me to mow their lawn, then said they were going to mow it again, I’d have no issue with that. And while it’s true something like mowing a lawn isn’t a valid comparison to the artful process, the exact same kind of thing happens in art all the time.

Some of the world’s greatest musicians get called in (and highly paid) to record a track for an album. Let’s say a drummer named Steve Gap is hired to play drums for a studio album. Steve comes in, plays the track and then finds out the producer is going to hire another drummer to redo the hihat track? Happens all the time. Or the producer is going to use Pro Tools (a musician’s version of photoshop) and completely alter the snare track. Or the kick drum? Happens all the time.

Let’s say a photo editor calls and wants the moose photo above (happened the same week I saw the above tweet). I’m not going to have an issue if they choose to crop both sides in to the moose’s body, though that would drastically alter the mood of the image. That also happens all the time. or they crop it to a vertical composition. Or they pump up the saturation somewhat? Happens all the time. In fact, if the editor is going to do all this work, I’d probably see MORE sense in giving them the RAW file, as that contains more data to work with, more information for them to adjust and tweak the image for their usage than a tif or jpeg would.

Similarly, the argument of “giving up creative control” is somewhat dishonest. An editor is free to make all kinds of adjustments to any image you send them, and I doubt many photographers in today’s photo stock market are going to demand the printed image be cleared with them before final publication. In other words, whatever creative control you might be giving up with RAW files can be similarly lost with any other format; with the potential of the final image only rendering even worse, because we gave them a limited data set to work with.

A lot of folks call the RAW file the digital negative; and it was perfectly common in the days before digital capture to send out slides, be they originals or copies, for photo editors. That’s HOW we sold our photos. So I simply don’t see how it’s any different now – unless, of course, folks are so intensely photoshopping and adjusting their RAW images that they don’t want editors (or anyone else) to see the original RAW file (and I’m not suggesting this is the case with Rich, above, at all, and don’t mean to imply otherwise).

If it were me as photo editor, I’d need to have some particular reason to request a RAW file, simply because I’d rather let the photographer do the work of the conversion process. But, if for some reason it worked better for me to get a RAW file, I’d do it. I just can’t see a single reason for a photographer to refuse to send out a RAW file for a stock photo sale. If the editor wishes to deal with a RAW file rather than a tif, or jpeg, more power to them, I say.

Cheers

Carl

Backcountry Skiing trip, Kuskulana River, Mt. Blackburn, winter, Wrangell St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska.

Hey Folks

The next of the monthly series for 2011. The biggest news, of course, in photography this month was the Oscars. I, of course,  missed them. Again. Ahh well – there goes pop culture, I spose.

The next biggest piece of news is that I’ve been spending quite a bit of time out of town, tooling around in Wrangell – St. Elias National Park, enjoying the mountains. A few days here, a  few days there; beats the heck out of navigating the treacherous icy roads of Anchorage. And much more interesting than reading the news.

Below is what caught my eye this month. I’ve been in the mtns a bit, so might have missed some good stuff. Feel free to add your own stuff of note.

In no particular order:

Photography Stuff

Flickr Loses 4000 Photos. Popular photo hosting website, Flickr, screwed up and deleted over 4000 photos belonging to longtime account holder Mirco Wilhelm. “Wilhelm had e-mailed Flickr customer service about another user’s account which seemed to be packed with stolen photos — a violation of the site’s policies. In trying to delete that errant account, the Flickr employee accidentally nuked Wilhelm’s.”

Canon 200-400mm lens. One lens all my friends who shoot Canon gear have been lusting over for a long time, finally announced. A 200-400mm F4 lens – “Designed for Canon’s leading range of EOS Digital SLR cameras, the new lens will be an ideal addition for sports and wildlife photographers, offering exceptional flexibility with a built-in 1.4x extender that creates an increased focal range of 280 – 560mm.”. Have at it, folks, I’m sure this will be a popular piece of gear.

Extinct Species Photos. New York Times does a short slide show; “A Gallery of Species Lost and on the Brink”

Amazing Mountain Lions. How many wildlife photographers would love an image of a mountain lion? how about a photo with 8 mountain lions in it. All wild. Check this out.

Quote #1: “In the tension between light and dark is the power of the universes”. Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard.

Most Surprising Photos of 2010. TIME Magazine displays a great Photo Essay, 21 photos from 2010. Some great stuff. #5 will blow your mind. Yikes! #13 is pretty amazing as well.

Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem A Photo Essay. – “a generally intact ecosystem; all the wild critters that were here a couple of centuries ago when Lewis and Clark passed through the Northern Rockies – wolves, grizzly bears, bison – are still here.” Dave Showalter has some nice stuff here, on the NRDC’s website. Good work.

American Pastoral. This is a must read. Mark Meyer, Alaska photographer, has an excellent piece here on a recently proposed bill in Florida by Florida Senator Jim Norman (R-Tampa) – the bill “would make it a first degree felony in the Sunshine State to make visual depictions of any property without written permission where agriculture operations are being conducted. Other first degree felonies in Florida are murder, rape, kidnapping, sexual battery, and child molestation. Burglary of an unoccupied structure and third degree grand theft are only third degree felonies.”

Aurora webcam. A webcam showing auroras. Useful tool for folks wanting to go out and maybe see or shoot the lights.

Facebook Changes. Recent (again) changes to Facebook are reviewed here on the Photo Editor website. As with everything to do with “the Face”, seems like every rose has its thorn.

Gave Our Kodachrome Away. Nothing lasts forever, not even those “nice bright colors”. Seems Dec 30 was the end of the line for this photography classic. There’s not a single place left to process Kodachrome film. “On Dec 30, 2010, Dwayne’s Photo in Parsons, Kan. will stop processing Kodachrome”. I know, I know, it’s now March. So what?

Artists and Alchemists. Speaking of film, here’s a film about film. Seems a little over the top to me, from the trailer here, but I know some folks will be keen to see this film. “In this digital age, a growing number of artists are reviving 19th century techniques to create modern photographs. Artists & Alchemists is a feature length documentary that follows ten contemporary and renowned photographers employing antiquated photographic processes.”

Photo Tips. Bret Edge puts a nice post on his blog with some helpful reminders to improve our photos. Excellent advice. Nice discussion follows the blog. Sweep the edges of the frame!

Odds and Ends

Customizing Facebook Pages. This guy did it. Nice job, too. Photoshelter blog present Nathan Armes’ work on customizing his facebook page. Will be interesting to see if this catches on. Here’s Nathan’s Facebook page.

Gmail users Some helpful hacks and tips to make gmail even more user-friendly. Gmail is the bomb. With these tips and tricks, gmail rocks even harder. For example, a link to the official gmail keyboard shortcuts page. eg. Click ‘J’ to open or move your cursor to the next oldest conversation.

Quote #2: “In art as in life, form and subject, body and soul, are one.” – Ed Abbey.

Canabis and Psychosis. Scientific America publish an article about an upcoming paper; “This particular study found that marijuana use is associated with early development of psychosis.” Put the pipe down, kids.

Internet Explorer 9.0. Website updates all around, I suppose. What else can this mean? “Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 web browser goes live”? As someone doing my own website work, I shudder everytime I hear anything about Internet Explorer. I hope it dies a slow painful death.

Free Hugs. This is pretty cool; a moving video of people offering “Free hugs” around the world. Seriously folks –  Watch this clip.

A cow moose, Alces alces, stands outside a house, Anchorage, Alaska, winter. I shot this leaning out the window, with a 12-24mm lens. That's up close to a moose.

That’s the news from here til next month. If you have any items you’d like to add below, please do so. The only qualifiers are that you must have actually read the article/watched the video/browsed the photo/s, AND thought the link actually worthwhile sharing. Put everything else on Twitter.

Thanks folks.

Cheers

Carl

Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Wrangell Mountains and the Kuskulana River, Kuskulana Glacier, near Nugget Creek mine. Winter, Alaska. This photo is a closer look at the ice wall on the Kuskulana Glacier, from the photo I posted last week. I probably spent about an hour or 2 here, checking out this fascinating place. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of this photo.

Hey Folks,

My friend Guy Tal posted (as usual) another great read on his blog; “Photography and the Environment”. I urge you to read his treatise; it’s a solid piece. Guy has a great knack for writing on particular topics without seeming to offend those who disagree with him, which makes his a powerful voice. At the same time, he’s not wishy-washy. that’s a hard line to toe.

One question Guy asks in the article is “Will another photograph on a web site in a stock library truly change public opinion? How about another thousand? Another million?”

I’d suggest, however, that this is the wrong question to consider.Turn it around; what if there were to be no more nature photographs? What if nobody photographed another sunset, another bald eagle, glacier, forest grove or great bear? What if no writer touched pen to paper to draft the next essay on climate change, the next article about mountain top blasting, or open pit mining, or overgrazing? What if poets stayed their ink, and said no more? What if musicians ceased their social commentary, singers fell silent? Cinematographers made no more nature films?

How might THAT change public opinion? I’ll submit here that art DOES foster culture. The voices of writers, photographers, musicians, painters, dancers, film makers, etc, are worthwhile. The art we create moves people. Expression, both collective and individual, reinforces and shapes who we are, what we value, how we feel, how we think, move, talk, how we treat ourselves, each other; in essence, how we live.

What if the voice for concern were left only to those who have none? What kind of culture would arise from a world where the only representatives of the natural world were those interested in nothing more than extraction and coin? This is precisely the kind of world that made the John Muirs, the Henry Jacksons, etc, so desperately critical. Rivers caught on fire and the greatest herds of wildlife the planet has ever seen are no more. Even given the great work of those luminaries, we still produce undrinkable water and unbreathable air; the skies rain acid, the ice melts and the  polar bear vanishes. It’s frightening to contemplate where we might be today if these giants of conservation, artists all, stepped away from the fray because they wondered if their work might make no difference.

No thanks; give me a world where “champions of the natural world” isn’t a phrase pertaining to competition and conquest, but a tribute to the voice of love and compassion.

Consider the work of great artists as part of a greater coterie; the voice of Bob Dylan, of Rachel Carson, Henry David Thoreau, Ansel Adams, Henry Jackson, Art Wolf, Wendell Berry do not arise from a vacuum. Those voices are certainly some of the loudest and most poignant; fine soloists indeed. But even Aretha Franklin sings with a choir. These legendary artists arise from a bed of creativity, a giant web, that includes, many, many other artists. It is this bed that generates great art and great artists, and it is this bed that might precipitate social change. The universe didn’t give us one Jimi Hendrix. The universe gives us hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of kids growing up playing guitar, making music, making art; and Jimi’s incredible performances are part of that, an outgrowth of that web.

Furthermore, artists don’t create single works. Artists make art, and maybe, sometimes, if we’re lucky, just one of those creations might generate public comment. Photographers shoot literally hundreds, thousands of images, in the vain, oft-concealed hope of possibly making one really great image. Cartier Bresson said “Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.” So if your photo isn’t enough to truly nurture a change in public opinion, shoot another. And another. And yet another.

The last point I might make here is a more personal one. My photography might not, probably will not, ever, “truly change public opinion”. But my photographic pursuits have changed my opinion; the ways I see the world, the things I care about, the respect I feel for the world around me, have all grown in leaps and bounds through artistic engagement, and continue to do so. That alone makes the quest meaningful.

Cheers

Carl

Hey Folks,

I ran across what is easily the biggest moose rack I’ve ever come across in the woods a few days ago. I was on the last leg of a hike in Wrangell – St. Elias National Park, from the Sanford River drainage over the Sanford Plateau, and down to the Dadina River. Natalie (pictured) and I were sauntering through the forest, along the Dadina River when I spotted this rack, not far from the game trail we were walking along. This was one BIG bull moose – I don’t know what happened to the grand old fella, but he’s bones now. He must’ve been a pretty awesome creature back in the day. There are a number of wolves in the area, and grizzly bears as well, and I’m sure he fed them well, along with the myriad other carnivores in the region – wolverine, fox, marten, gulls, ravens, eagles, etc. What a treat it must’ve been for them when he passed, and what a treat it would’ve been to see him walking through the forest beforehand. RIP, great bull.

Some of you might remember I did this hike last summer, and we found this awesome natural ice arch on the Sanford Glacier. Sad to say, the arch has had its day. We hiked up the moraine and crested the ridge right before the arch, only to see a huge gaping gap between the 2 side walls – no bridge at all. Ironically, a couple who were up there the week prior to our trip said the arch was still there, so we only missed it by a few days. It seems the arch collapsed under glacial movement, not melting, as the left side of the gap is noticeably higher than it used to be – in fact, the wall ascends away from the gap, where it used to descend. So I’m pretty sure pressure from the glacier caused the collapse of the arch, not melting – though melting may have been a contributing factor, as the summer has been hot, hot hot so far. Except, of course, for the day we hiked up to the now gone arch – it rained like a sonuvagun that day – so no pics of the fallen arch. I should’ve taken a picture, instead, of me, drenched to the bone, in my failed (and now history) Marmot Precip raingear. The jacket and pants had done their time and now are beyond redemption. Fortunately, it didn’t rain again for the rest of the trip until the final night, when I was tucked away in my very dry tent. I should’ve known better than to carry my old gear, but I thought it might still work reasonably well. Alas, it didn’t and I got a soaking. Toughened me up though.

Heading out tomorrow for a week at Skolai Pass. Woo hoo. I’ll try to schedule another post while I’m away, from this last trip, but it’s hard – summer’s the time for hiking, not blogging.

Cheers

Carl

Hey Folks,

Here’s a quick one while I’m hiking. I saw this bull moose a few times this spring, feeding on the aquatic plants that grow on the lake bed this time of year. Quite a rack for early June. He’ll be quite a sought after moose come this fall when the subsistence hunters look around Wrangell – St. Elias National Park for their winter meat. As much as I like for my friends to eat well, I hope nobody gets this guy.

Cheers

Carl

Hey Folks,

Here’s a young bull moose, a yearling, trundling through the snow. Moose have disproportionately longer legs than other members of the deer family, and it really helps them get through deep snow. This is a helpful advantage as they seek out food in the winter, and also in evading their main predator, the wolf pack. But the real secret they employ is a kind of double-jointed hip or knee that allows them to lift their legs higher than most ungulates, and high-step their way to safety.  When I first saw this fellow, he stepped into a deeper drift that was right up to his belly, yet he managed to clamber his way through, regather, and then set about finding himself some browse for dinner. The word ‘moose’ comes from a North American Indian Tribe, the Abenaki, and it translates roughly as ‘he trims or cuts off’, a reference to how the Moose browses twigs and bark from trees.

Cheers

Carl

Hey Folks,

So, I’m back to the ‘photos from the past’ section. I’ll post a few more from my recent stay in the park, but wanted to post this, a favorite of mine, from Denali National Park a few years. This was probably one of the greatest days I ever had photographing. I hiked my tail off all morning after this bull moose – I was just finishing breakfast on what was to the be the last day of a 2 day stay in Denali Park, and I really wanted to get something worthwhile. The weather was pretty gnarly, but it was my last day, and I hadn’t much to show for 12 days of staying hunkered down in my little 1 person tent in wind, rain, sleet, snow and cold. So I sat drinking coffee glassing the surrounding tundra with my binoculars, hoping for some wildlife; any wildlife. At last I see this bull moose wandering over a ridge, WAAAAYYYYYY off in the distance. I mean, far, far away. But what the heck, I hadn’t anything else to do other than pack up my gear and head out of the park, right? So I grab my camera and start walking. It took me nearly an hour of solid hiking, and I mean S-O-L-I-D hiking, through entangled dwarf birch, greedy willows and nefarious alders. But eventually I caught up with this fellow. He was moving around, as he could smell the cow in the area, I suppose, but hadn’t found her. Finally he caught up with her, and I followed the 2 of them around for another couple of hours. I wasn’t getting a lot of great photos, as the area was pretty brushy, and they weren’t really cooperating with me. And the light TOTALLY sucked. Eventually they came together, and nuzzled a little, and I took a few frames, of which this is my favorite. It’s one of my moose photos so far. So I was pretty stoked to catch it.

I sauntered back to my camp, packed up, and hiked off to the road to pick up a ride on the shuttle bus that would take me to the entrance of the park, where I’d throw my gear in my car and drive back to Anchorage, whereupon I’d have a well-earned and much needed shower. However, what I THOUGHT was to the bus that would take me out of the park turned out NOT to be such a bus. It took me about halfway, just shy of the East Fork River, in fact. And I couldn’t have been happier to get off the bus, in the driving snow and sleet, for a few hours. But you’ll have to wait for me to explain why.

Cheers

Carl

Hey Folks,

It’s WAY too late for me here in Anchorage – I just walked in a little while ago from this little blues bar, called Blue Central. They have an open mic night every sunday, and I was fortunate to get to play this evening for an hour or more – nice finish to my week.It was tons of fun, and the folks I played with did a bunch of different styles of music, so it was interesting. There’s nothing quite like sitting in with people you’ve never met before, and making music together. It’s all the more fun when they start playing tunes you have no idea what they are, how they go, what key they’re in, or anything else. You just have to listen closely.

It struck me how different the art of making music is from photography. Photography in no way is such an experience – the process is slower, and less about creating, in my opinion, than playing music is. Taking a photograph of something, of anything, is simply a different process – it’s still really cool, and I know some amazing and creative photographers, but it’s a whole different gig. And I don’t think I’ve ever been able to share an experience with another photographer that can come close to playing music together with other people. I’ve certainly had a blast shooting together with good friends of mine – I have some fantastic memories of that, and I treasure the experiences – but it’s more akin to hanging out and having a good time with friends than playing music together is. It’s difficult to articulate, but there’s a mystique and an energy that comes out of making music together that simply doesn’t happen when I’m photographing, whether shooting with people, or working together on an image – it certainly doesn’t lend itself to a collective process, and when it does, that experience is invairbaly more cognitive than emotive, more cerebral than experiential.

On the other hand, often when I’m playing or writing music by myself, I get lost in the process, and this I do tend to experience something similar when I’m working on photography. But still something is missing – I think because it inherently relies on a subject, some ‘other’ some external “thing” to photograph. Music, I can simply make when I brush a string, or when I sing – though I’m probably the world’s second worst singer (after my older brother), so I don’t do that too much. I don’t need some subject in front of me to photograph. I think these are a few of the reasons why so many folks in the “art world” look upon photography as some kind of step-sister of “real art” . painting, writing, music, dance, etc.

All of this is somewhat moot – I still love shooting images, and I enjoy looking them over when I get them back. I even, sometimes, enjoy working on them on my computer. But it’ll never be the same as picking up my guitar and wondering what’s about to come out. I’m already looking forward to next sunday, I think I’ll head back over and play some more. Long live the blues.

Oh, regarding the image ..just something I picked out to continue my little memory lane jaunt from Denali. This is the same moose that I posted a photo of the other day.

Cheers

Carl

PS – More Denali National Park Photos.

More Moose Photos.

Hey Folks

Here’s another photo from my little run up to Denali. We’d been tooling around on the shuttle bus system during the day, trying to find some wolves, and had no luck. Later in the day we were heading back to our backcountry unit, and my buddy Doug headed for camp – he was done in after a long day and wanted a nap. I wanted a bull moose. So I pointed Doug towards camp and then proceeded to walk all over the backend of Denali looking for a moose. Finally, I found this fellow. He wasn’t the largest bull moose in the park, he’s not fully grown yet, but he was reasonably obliging for my photos – more importantly, I didn’t find any others. I found him down near, ironically enough, Moose Creek. I carefully approached, and took my time getting into position to shoot some photos of him. The light was pretty drab, and I was glad to be shooting a digital camera where I could increase the ISO (similar to film speed), though I really would have enjoyed even a little more shutter speed than what I had to work with.

Anyway, I spent probably 2 hours with this young bull, and he was, generally, very tolerant of my approach. Moose are HUGE animals, and can easily cause a lot of damage to a person, so it’s a wise move to give them some room. The standard line I hear in Alaska is that a bull moose is super dangerous, and a cow moose with a calf is as dangerous, if not more so – which really doesn’t leave many options when it comes to moose – that’s about all there is. So, a wise way of thinking might just be “moose are dangerous.” Though I tend not to think of animals as ‘dangerous’, I prefer to think of them as creatures who can cause me pain if I bother them. And I’m sure a bull moose like this one could easily cause a lot of pain if he tried. I gave him his space.

Everyone who heads into the backcountry in Denali has to sit through a video and short program on how to conduct one’s self in the backcountry. Hikers are briefed on “Leave No Trace” ethics, as well as how to travel through bear country, and how to behave if one does run across a bear. But very little is said about moose, and I think it’s something the park should add in their little talk. They do have posters around that go something like:

“If a grizzly bear approaches, do not run – appear as non-threatening as you can and concede ground to the bear. Do not turn your back and do not run.

If a moose approaches you, run.”

Indeed!

The reason for the difference, of course, is that bears, being a predator, like a wolf or big cat, have what we call a ‘chase instinct; if something runs from them, they’ll likely chase it, just like your dog might. Moose don’t have this instinct, so even an “aggressive” moose is really a ‘defensive’ moose, and not generally interested in chasing you down, rather they just want you out of their space – so they won’t chase more than a few yards.

Of course, anyone who’s tried to run in moose country knows that’s not as easy as it sounds. Moose love willow, and often live in areas covered with thick willow and alder bushes, stuff that is about impossible to run through. Often the stuff is over your head, and as thick as a Rhododendron thicket – not something you’re likely to make ‘a few yards’ through in a hurry.

Cheers

Carl

PS: You can see more photos from Denali here. or more moose photos.

Hey Folks

Today’s my mum’s birthday! Happy birthday, mum! Mum refers to October as her ‘birthday month’, meaning she celebrates her birthday for the entire month of October.. which translates to ‘whatever mum wants goes for the month of October’. Pretty nifty deal, for her, I spose. Anyway, it’s all OK, because she’s mum. Happy birthday, mum – Love you!

We’re winding up our trip together now. We spent one evening in Grand Teton National Park, and returned to Yellowstone because the weather down in the Tetons wasn’t so conducive to a great birthday .. rainy and cold and cloudy skies meant we couldn’t really get to see those mountains in all their majesty, though the fall color was, as usual, quite the spectacle. The Tetons are awesome, and we did enjoy the place, but felt that with overcast skies, with a low ceiling, we may as well head back through Yellowstone and enjoy the wildlife there. Not a bad idea, as it turns out, because we saw a bunch more elk, mule deer, black bear, and had a herd of bison walk right past us along the road – it’s a neat experience watching a bull bison weighing over a ton saunter past you from about 5′ away, giving a little sideways glance out his eye as he goes by. Bison rock.

We also got see a nice young bull moose in Grand Teton National Park, right by, appropriately enough, Moose Junction. I got some decent images of him, with great fall colors from the cottonwoods along the Snake River in the background. It would’ve been great to see him walk across the road in front of the Moose Junction sign, but such wasn’t to be, today. As always, it was cool getting a nice good look at a wild animal, and the bull was very tolerant of us, allowing a great experience. Later, we saw a bull elk herding his cows, a harem of over 30 female elk, towards Lamar Valley in Yellowstone National Park. That was very cool, hearing him bugle and call to all who would listen that this was his moment. Elk in the fall are one of my favorite animals to be around, and this was an evening we’ll all remember for a long time, I’m sure. We camped at Mammoth, and had a nice early dinner, then off to bed. Another great day with my parents and the Rockies for company – not too shabby!

Happy birthday mum – I hope you enjoy your present!

Cheers

Carl

PS – Hey Folks

A special note before my dad reads this and makes the obvious comment. The photo posted above is NOT of my mother, rather it’s a young bull moose who lives in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming. My mum was in the vehicle on the road behind me, about 100 yards away.

Here’s a photo of my mum:

And here’s a photo of my mum and dad:

Both photos were taken at the overlook above Peyto Lake, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada.